Thursday, January 1, 2015

Adeline Ooi is the new director of Art Basel Hong Kong, replacing outgoing director Magnus Renfrew. Formerly the head of Art Basel's VIP Relations for S E Asia, she takes up her new position in January, two months out from the third edition of Art Basel Hong Kong. Read more...Image: Adeline Ooi, director of Art Basel Hong Kong

Friday, December 19, 2014

Tonight we launch a new Inhouse designed publication by John Reynolds, with writing by Laurence Simmons seeking to unravel some of the mysteries of blueness. Simmons says: "Blue is as moody as we all are. It can almost mean anything.
The colour of vibrant skies; the undisputed colour of heaven, but also of the cold,
bruised skin of death. It is the signature of plainness in blue denim jeans,
the peasantry in the Mao suit of communism, the law in police uniforms, the
earnestness of bluestockings, the sign of the Virgin Mary and even John Key. Of
course, the bluest blues have always been found in painting: it was lapis
lazuli, the vivid blue rock from Afghanistan, that lit up Renaissance Italian
painting becoming the signature shade of the Virgin Mary’s mantle; and Yves
Klein’s International Klein blue that bound the pigment to the canvas for a
bluer blue, at once more material and more abstract. With ‘Blutopia’ John
continues that long tradition of painting in his boisterous exploration of the
associations and hues of blue. He exquisitely teases out the contradictions of
blue, its mercurial nature. For blue is the colour that both reassures and
intimidates us. As Derek Jarman in his last film, made shortly before his death
from AIDS, declared 'blue is an open door to the soul, an infinite possibility
of becoming tangible'”.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

We have joined the Instagram set and you can follow us at instagram.com/starkwhite where you will find this image featuring as our latest post - our place photographed by Shanghai-based artist Jin Jiangbo (making the familiar strangely unfamiliar).

Monday, December 8, 2014

Instagram as an artistic medium was the subject of one of the sessions in this year's Art Basel Miami Beach Talks programme, featuring four panelists with a combined 1.6 million followers. Amalia Ulman took the stage first, describing how she had created a fictional online narrative around the character who appears in selfies on the amaliaulman Instagram feed. Simon de Pury was next up saying he uses the service to catalogue pieces and items that he finds beautiful, followed by Hans Ulrich Obrist who talked about his handwriting project, a massive series where artists and cultural figures write short phrases on post it notes for his Instagram feed. Klaus Biesenbach then explained how Instagram helped him get over his aversion to revealing anything about himself, and co-founder of Instagram Kein Systrom wrapped up the session saying "our mission is to capture all the world's moments, but our core value is to inspire creativity."Image: James Franco's post-it note for Hans Ulrich Obrists' The Handwriting Project.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

At the opening of the first show by new director Adnan Yildiz (tomorrow at 6pm), Artspace will present a contribution from Billy Apple towards Artists for Kobane, a global benefit auction organised by Hito Steyerl and Anton Vidokle in solidarity with refugees from Kobane, Shengal and many other towns and areas in northern Syria and Iraq who have been displaced by IS attacks and provisionally sheltered in museums, construction sites or tents. Proceeds from this auction will go towards providing tents, winter clothes, electric stoves, blankets and diapers mainly to the municipality of Suruc, where around 50,000 refugees from Kobane live.Images: Billy Apple, Art For Kobane, 2014, 382 x 618 x 25mm, UV impregnated ink on canvas; Billy Apple, Basic Needs, 2014, 618 x 382 x 25 mm, UV impregnated ink on canvas

Sunday, November 30, 2014

The Chartwell Collection is under the spotlight at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. A Work Undone opened last week and is showing alongside Seung Yul Oh's Soom and a photography exhibition titled The Social Life of Things. Most of the artists in the photography show are represented by works drawn from Chartwell's holdings and a few (like Gavin Hipkins) by works from both Chartwell and the collections of the Auckland Art Gallery.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Seung Yul Oh's Soom installation opened last night at the Auckland Art Gallery toi o Tamaki. Commisioned by the Gallery with support from the Chartwell Trust, the work will be on the North Sculpture Court through to 11 October 2015.Image: Seung Yul Oh's Soom at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

On Sunday Rob and Sue Gardiner gave a floor talk about selected works in the exhibition A World Undone: Works from the Chartwell Collection, curated by Stephen Cleland. In the past Chartwell has focused on works by New Zealand and Australian artists, but the current show at the Auckland Art Gallery reveals a new international strand, featuring works by John Baldessari, Martin Creed, Gunther Forg, Christian Marclay, Robert Rauschenberg, Jessica Stockholder and Richard Tuttle. Aside from the Stockholder, the international artists are presented in a multiples section alongside local artists such as Gavin Hipkins and Jim Speers.Image: Jim Speers' VeilSide in A World Undone: Works from the Chartwell Collection at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Wystan Curnow's book The Critic's Part was launched at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki last night. Edited by Christina Barton and Robert Leonard, the book brings together a selection of Curnow's art writings from 1971 to 2013 to provide the first comprehensive overview of his practice. It features long form essays that investigate the stakes for 'high culture' in a 'small province' like New Zealand; major essays on key artists including Billy Apple, Len Lye and Colin McCahon; reports on the contemporary art scene; catalogue essays and short reviews offering insightful readings of their work. Both a map of contemporary theory and practice and cogent agenda for thinking through the implications and challenges of making art here, it is a must-read book for anyone interested in New Zealand art as it has unfolded since 1970. The book is available from Victoria University Press.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Using painting as a departure point to explore relationships between art, architecture and design, Matt Henry has installed an arrangement of stretched white canvases on a white wall at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts. Some of the canvases have been inset into the wall itself, while others are hung conventionally on its surface. Both rely on the play of light to define the internal and external forms and call into question the presence of a painting in a room, not as an image or surface, but as something that might become part of the architecture in which it is placed. The project opens at Te Tuhi tomorrow and runs to 15 February 2015. Image: Installation view of Matt Henry's Structural Relief at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts

Monday, November 10, 2014

Rick Ellis has been appointed chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The former chief executive of TVNZ will provide "inspirational leadership," says Te Papa Chairman Evan Williams, foreshadowing "a shift in the culture of the organisation." Read more...Image; Rick Ellis, the new chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Later this month the inaugural edition of the Outsider Art Fair launches in Auckland. It will feature work by several of New Zealand's prominent outsider artists and include an exhibition of the work of the late Jim Dornan and others curated by Stuart Shepherd. Well-known collector John Perry will also showcase a small selection of folk art from early last century in the fair's curated section. The Outsider Art Fair runs at the Nathan Club, 51 Galaway Street, Brittomart from 23 - 25 November.Image: Jim Dornan's I love One Sleepin'